View in browser

Dear Colleagues and Friends of the Department,

June marks the closeout of the 2025-26 academic year and, with it, a bittersweet moment in saying goodbye to graduating residents who have spent five to seven years with us in training. We are excited for their future, but will greatly miss their everyday presence. Their exceptional placements reflect both their talent, dedication and drive, as well as the strength of their respective residency programs. I am confident they will be leaders in their fields and communities and bring healing to so many.

The close of the academic year also provides an opportunity to reflect on the department’s achievements and the shared impact on our patients and communities. This month, we received a very generous and transformational $5 million gift by Joseph and Honmai Goodman to advance innovation, education and leadership at the intersection of surgery and emerging technologies. The gift supports the creation of an endowed director’s chair for the Center for the Future of Surgery as well as additional endowed funds in the School of Medicine. This extraordinary gift is a testament to the unique resources and vision of the Center for the Future of Surgery and our unwavering commitment to develop and make available new life-saving technologies for patients far and wide.

We also celebrate the recent $25 million National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant, which was awarded to our Moores Cancer Center. Congratulations to Moores Cancer Center Director Diane Simeone, MD, professor of surgery, and the entire team on securing this very competitive and vital funding award! In addition, we are excited to highlight Division Chief Gabe Schnickel, MD, MPH, who published a San Diego Union-Tribune op-ed on the importance of living donation, and also Eugene Golts, MD, who spoke to the San Diego Union-Tribune about performing the first successful lung transplant on a patient with HIV in San Diego County. 

For this month’s Q&A, we sat down with Joshua Bardin, MD, anatomy instructor, to learn about his path to UC San Diego and his surgical skills program for first- and second-year medical students. Bardin has taught more than 1,000 medical students in the last 20 years, and many have gone on to pursue surgery. Also from our extraordinary anatomy team, Division Chief Geoffroy Noel, PhD, received the Kaiser Permanente Excellence in Teaching Award for fostering a culture of improvement in health sciences education. We’re so lucky to have such exceptional anatomy faculty!

As always, thank you for your interest in the affairs of the department. Your support has an important impact on patients and the team members who serve them.

Bryan Clary, MD, MBA

Marshall J. Orloff Family Endowed Chair

Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery

UC San Diego Health Sciences

Surgeon-in-Chief, UC San Diego Health

The gift, provided by Joseph and Honmai Goodman, supports the creation of an endowed director’s chair for the Center for the Future of Surgery and two endowed funds in the School of Medicine to accelerate innovation and training in emerging technologies in health and medicine.  

Victoria Bendersky
General Surgery
Duke University Transplant Surgery Fellowship

Claire Bensard
General Surgery
UC San Diego Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship

Karina Covarrubias
General Surgery
Emory University Transplant Surgery Fellowship

Jorge De La Torre
General Surgery
Cleveland Clinic Endocrine HPB Fellowship

Nicole Goldhaber
General Surgery
University of Pittsburg Plastic Surgery Fellowship

Estella Huang
General Surgery
UC Davis Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship

Kevin Li
General Surgery
Mount Sinai Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship

Ashwyn Sharma
General Surgery
University of South Florida Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship

Michael Hornacek
Plastic Surgery
SD Naval Hospital and Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital

Garrison Leach
Plastic Surgery
The Ohio University Nerve Damage Repair and Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship

John Hallsten
Vascular Surgery
SHARP Memorial Hopsital

Gabe Schnickel, MD, MPH, wrote an op-ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune about the organ donation shortage and the importance of living donation. 

And he was featured in People Magazine speaking about Anh Nguyen's brave choice to donate her kidney and part of her liver to save multiple lives.

Romeo Ignacio, MD, contributed to a feature for the American College of Surgeons on how gaps in e-bike regulation heighten the risk of injury for young e-bike riders. 

UC San Diego Health earned national recognition for environmental sustainability — receiving multiple 2026 Practice Greenhealth awards for the 5th year in a row. 

After retiring from his 26-year-long career as a vascular surgeon in San Diego, Joshua Bardin, MD (right), began volunteering as an anatomy professor for medical students. 

A thorough understanding of the face's fibrous membrane (temporal fascia) is essential for plastic surgery. However, because its layers are difficult to distinguish, there are discrepancies in traditional descriptions of its anatomy. Now, Geoffroy Noel, PhD, chief of the Division of Anatomy, and Jin Seo Park, PhD, created a more accurate 3D anatomical framework of the temporal fascia, resolving these discrepancies. Read the publication

Eugene Golts, MD, spoke to the San Diego Union-Tribune about performing the first successful lung transplant on a patient with HIV in San Diego County. 

Geoffroy Noel receives Kaiser Permanente Excellence in Teaching Award

First-year medical students nominated Geoffroy Noel, PhD, for this award for fostering a culture of improvement in health sciences education. Noel’s work is imperative in training the next generation of physicians.

Maura Siino, MS, is the Department of Surgery’s new philanthropy officer. She joins us from the UC San Diego Cardiovascular Institute and previously held positions at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. 

Members of the Department of Surgery participated in Rock 'n' Roll San Diego, a local race with marathon, half-marathon and 5k distances. 
 

Alexandra Brito, MBChB, completed her general surgery residency at UC San Diego in 2020. She went on to complete a surgical critical care fellowship at Oregon Health and Science University and a trauma and acute care surgery fellowship at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. She is now a trauma and acute care surgeon at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu and a clinical assistant professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

“I believe training at UC San Diego prepared me well for fellowship and independent practice. I met fantastic mentors in my chosen specialty (acute care surgery) who I not only keep in touch with but continue to work with through research and society activities. As a trauma/acute care surgeon, you need a diverse toolbelt to manage the range of injuries and illnesses you see. At UC San Diego, my rotations with experts and thought leaders in colorectal surgery, surgical oncology and vascular surgery gave me the knowledge, skills and experience to be able to manage surgical emergencies involving the hepatopancreaticobiliary, gastrointestinal and vascular systems with a depth of understanding I wouldn’t otherwise have. Additionally, working in a well-established and organized program taught me about systems management and process improvement, which has been invaluable to the administrative side of my practice.”

Is there a person or program that positively impacted your experience at UC San Diego? Please consider making a gift in their honor and directly supporting your training program. To learn more, please contact Maura Siino, philanthropic officer, at msiino@ucsd.edu or visit our website.

REIMAGINE Symposium

Join transplantation leaders from around the country for a dynamic three-day symposium exploring the future of organ donation and transplantation. 

Date: October 11-13, 2026
Location: Estancia La Jolla Resort and Spa

Faculty from multiple divisions in the Department of Surgery attended the UC San Diego School of Medicine commencement ceremony to celebrate the school's graduating medical students. See the graduation photos

We shared our excitement about the new residents and fellows joining the Department of Surgery this summer. We look forward to meeting you! See the post